


Fuck Fate

by KillianJones32



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Fluff, M/M, Prince Isak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 08:36:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11181039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KillianJones32/pseuds/KillianJones32
Summary: Even is destined to slay a dragon, save a princess and live happily ever after but Even has always seen himself as the director of his own life so things don’t exactly go as the prophecy foretold.





	Fuck Fate

Bursting through the door of the highest room in the tallest tower, Even lets out a long exhausted but relieved sigh that’s inaudible over the sound of the door violently crashing against the stone wall.

Even cringes and thinks to himself that he probably should have made a quieter, more graceful entrance to meet the princess that he is destined to save.

He has just put the dragon guarding her to sleep, the prophecy foretold that he was to slay the dragon but Even refused to harm it, a sleeping draught worked just as well and no harm needed to be done.

Gathering his thoughts, he takes a step forward to walk up the stairs to the princess’s bed when suddenly a voice causes him to stop in his tracks.

“What the fuck was that!?”

A figure hastily walks out from the lounge area and when they come into the light, Even’s breath catches in his throat.

There was no princess to be found in this tower, which was something else the prophecy got wrong or maybe Even changed the whole prophecy when he decided not to kill the dragon.

But there isn’t a girl in this tower, instead there is a boy in front of him who must be a prince, with his tousled golden hair, fair skin and beautiful eyes that unfortunately at this moment hold deep rage, presumably directed at Even.

Even swallows, “S-Sorry I didn’t mean for the door to bang like that.”

The boy walks towards him and for every second Even looks at him, he notices more about his appearance and how beautiful this boy is. How he is just a few inches shorter than himself but looks to be a year or two younger, the small birthmark on his cheek, the crease in his forehead when his eyebrows draw together and how he isn’t dressed like a prince at all, wearing an old jumper and trousers instead of robes or even a suit.

Even can’t help smile to himself about how this was going so much better than how it was foretold.

The prince leans against the wall and folds his arms, “You could have knocked. Do you appreciate people barging into your room and almost kicking the door off its hinges?”

Even looks back at the poor door that is barely hanging on to the frame and feels a twinge of guilt.

“Shit” Even mutters before turning back to the prince, “Sorry, I was just…I was trying to…”

The prince’s eyes widen with something Even can’t differentiate and he stands up taller,

“You’re…you’re here to fulfil the prophecy right?”

Even simply nods; unsure of what the boy wants his answer to be.

After all the prince is probably expecting some dashing royal knight in gleaming armour and what he gets is a poor, lanky skinny boy in his uncle’s old, tarnished armour that’s a size too big for him.

It’s no wonder then that the prince’s eyes turn furious and he steps towards Even almost threateningly,

“Did you hurt Eskild?”

Even frowns and takes a step back, away from the prince’s rage, “Eskild?”

“My dragon! Eskild!? The prophecy said you were to kill him? Did you?”

“I-“ 

“If you hurt my guru I swear-“

“I didn’t!” Even says hurriedly and the prince deflates, “I didn’t hurt him, I put him to sleep! He’ll wake up in a few hours as right as rain, I promise!”

The other boy stops advancing and all the anger leaves his face, in this moment he doesn’t look anything like a prince or princess ready to take over a kingdom, right now he looks small and innocent as if he knew his whole life that this day would come but never expected it would arrive so soon.

“Oh” the prince says, “Well…thank you, I appreciate that.”

Even shrugs, “I didn’t see any reason to hurt it and I think dragons are rather cool anyway so…”

The prince smiles, “Yeah, well that one is anyway. Well I wouldn’t say cool, he’s the dragon version of a dork really but he looks out for me, sends all the princesses and knights who tried to slay it and save me running away.”

Even grins, “How nice of your guru”

The prince’s cheeks turn crimson and Even thinks he hears him mutter a feeble ‘shut up’ but he isn’t quite sure.

“Can I ask your name?” Even asks hesitantly, unsure if he’s allowed to ask such question of the future King of Norway.

The boy looks at him for a minute, most likely trying to gauge whether he’s trustworthy or not.

“Isak” He whispers and then he coughs to speak clearer, “My name is Isak.”

Even grins and suddenly he couldn’t believe he didn’t already know it. No other name could suit this beautiful boy other than Isak.

Even offers him a bow that has Isak sniggering but Even ignores that and says, “It’s an honour to meet you.”

Isak’s sniggering doesn’t stop but he manages to conceal it better.

“And what’s your name then? I swear if it’s Sir Lancelot of the damn round table, I’m sending you back and they can send me another knight.”

Even can’t help the laugh that escapes him, whatever he was expecting, this snarky teenage boy wasn’t it but Even knows he wouldn’t want anything else.

“Even” he says, refraining from bowing again because even though he was informed that’s the right procedure when introducing yourself in front of royalty, he doubts Isak would appreciate it.

Isak smiles and then turns away from him and walks up the small steps to his unmade bed.

Sitting down onto it, Isak looks around his room and his smile turns sad,

“I guess this is it then? You’re taking me home?”

Even knows he’s supposed to nod and say yes but instead he finds himself saying,

“We can do whatever you want.”

Isak frowns, “What do you mean?”

Even walks up the steps and stands at the other end of Isak’s bed,

“Yeah I came here to save you from the dragon and to bring you home so you could rule but that’s…that’s just what the prophecy said. Already so much is different than what I was told, I didn’t slay the dragon, quite frankly the prophecy said you were a princess when you clearly aren’t, not that I care either way! But…” Even sighs, “Look you seem happy? Or maybe happy isn’t the right word because who would be locked up for their teenage years? But you get along with the dragon and…while I might be wrong you don’t seem too keen on leaving to become the next king of Norway anytime soon.”

“I have to” Isak says, looking at the ground in front of him instead of at Even, “I have to, I have to leave with you and forget about my years here and rule the kingdom and forgive my parents.”

He says the last part in a barely audible whisper as if it’s something he’s not meant to say and something Even definitely isn’t supposed to hear.

Sitting down on the bed next to him, Even says softly, “Well…I am supposed to take you home straight away but…maybe we could take a little detour first.”

Isak finally looks at him again, interest in those crystal blue eyes, “What?”

Even smiles, “There’s a town about a half a day’s ride from here. There’s a nice restaurant that makes all sorts of weird food concoctions but they taste really good. My favourite is toasted cheese bread with cardamom.”

“Cardamom?” Isak repeats, amusement laced in his voice,

“Hey, it tastes good okay?” Even insists

And then they’re both laughing, partly because of the thought of bread with cheese and cardamom actually tasting good and partly because of how crazy and unexpected this first meeting is going.

“Alright” Isak says, a few minutes later, “We can go, but only because you’ve interested me with this weird sandwich idea because I refuse to believe it tastes good without actually trying it.”

Even nods, excitement bubbling in his stomach at the thought of Isak wanting to spend more time with him, “Okay, that’s great.”

They stay at the castle that night, Isak claims it’s because he needs time to pack his belongings and he doesn’t want to ride in the night-time but Even suspects he just wants to spend one last night in the place that was his home for so long and Even respects that.

Isak it seems is atrocious at cooking dinners and Even laughs as he says that he has no idea how on Earth Isak survived on his own all these years.

Isak sits on the table and watches him cook and Even pretends not to hear him whisper that he doesn’t know how he survived either.

Eskild wakes up halfway through dinner and Even is momentarily terrified for his life but Isak merely stands up, gathers some of the food Even made onto a plate and shoves it towards Eskild.

The dragon guru with his wide green eyes looks from Even’s petrified face to Isak’s stubborn one and then thankfully seems to realise Isak isn’t under threat and plops on the ground with an echoing thump and launches into eating his own dinner.

Isak simply sits down once more and continues wolfing down the food on his one plate, oblivious to Even who stares at him in shock for a moment before returning to his own meal.

That night Even talks about the outside world, he talks about politics and the kingdoms but once he realises Isak has no wish to discuss his family, Even starts talking about his own, he talks about where he grew up and his old school and friends and how one day a servant to the King came to his door and told him he was destined to fulfil a prophecy and how Even slammed the door in his face and thought it was a scam.

Isak laughs and tells his own stories, of him convincing Eskild to let him hop onto his back and for them to fly through the skies when he was fourteen, how his friend Linn used to live here and cook for them both and Eskild of course but then she fell in love with the girl who used to bring the food to the castle and Isak insisted that she leave and go live her life.

The lie on the carpet in front of the fire in the lounge area in Isak’s tower and Isak soon reveals that he was brought here at the age of 12 because it was his duty and he had no say. He admits that his mother hasn’t come to visit since he was 15 and his father stopped coming about a year later. He gets birthday cards from them for the past two years and that was the only communication he’s had with them since.

Even’s stomach turns and he wants nothing more than to reach over and hug Isak, to shield him from feeling any more pain but he knows he can’t. They barely know each other and he doesn’t want to force anything onto Isak.

But he also knows this information is very private and sensitive to Isak and that Isak decided to trust Even with this so the least he could do is repay the favour.

That’s how Even starts explaining how he sometimes has…these mood swings…except they aren’t mood swings. Sometimes he’s happy and he’ll be like that for days on end but then suddenly it’ll change and he’ll be sad for days on end or even weeks. He stares into the fire as he confesses that he saw two of the apothecaries in town and one deemed him insane while the other said what he had was common and he was working on a medicine to help limit the symptoms and he gave it to Even to try.

He tells Isak that since taking the potion as often as he was told to, he has felt a lot better, not perfect but better and sometimes that doesn’t mean he always feels good but it means when those sad times come, they don’t hit as badly as they used to.

Then he whispers what he hasn’t even told his own parents, about how there was a time when things had gotten so bad for him and the pressure of the prophecy was looming that he made the stupid decision of not talking to friends, not explaining his situation to them and eventually just ignoring them altogether.

They’re quiet for awhile after that, the sound of the fire cracking and Eskild’s faint snoring are the only things to break their tangible silence.

That’s when Isak whispers, “Maybe we’re more alike than we thought.”

Even turns to look at this seventeen year old prince with his beautiful features and sun kissed hair and thinks about how he might be right.

They’ve both spent so many years feeling alone and even though they don’t speak of it, Even knows they were both terrified of what the prophecy meant for them ever since they were first told about it.

And he also knows that they’re both still wary of it and just what is destined for them both.

At what must be around 3am, Even insists that they get some rest for the journey tomorrow.

Isak offers him the guest bedroom in the tower and while Even is sure that it’s just as lavish as Isak’s, Even asks if he can take the couch in the lounge area instead.

Even makes a joke that it’s because he’s afraid Eskild will set him on fire during the night but they both know it’s because he wants to stay close to Isak during the night.

And even if Even tries to tell himself it’s because that’s a knight’s role, to protect the Prince and he’s supposed to be doing a knight’s duties around Isak, he knows that’s not entirely why he wants to stay near Isak tonight.

Isak insists that Even borrow some of his clothes for sleeping in though no matter how hard Even tries to refuse.

“Really, I can just sleep in this” Even points to his clunky shield armour.

Isak raises an eyebrow and scoffs, “Yeah, right. You’re not sleeping in that; it’ll make noise when you toss and turn and wake me up, just take these and sleep.”

Even huffs but accepts the trousers and t-shirt offered to him, “I do not toss and turn.”

Laughing, Isak turns and walks up to his bed, “I don’t care as long as you don’t snore.”

Even smiles and watches as Isak goes to close the drawings around his four poster,

“Goodnight Even, peasant and fake-knight of Oslo.”

Even snorts, “Goodnight Prince Isak Valtersen, future King of Norway.”

Isak rolls his eyes, draws his curtains while Even retires to the couch to get changed and they both try and get some rest.

Try being the key word, Even isn’t sure how long it takes him to get to sleep but he feels like he was plagued the whole night with the sound of Isak’s quiet breathing only a few feet away and the ever present image of Isak’s crooked smile and dimples every time Even closes his eyes.

But eventually he must fall asleep and at midday the following day, Even waits by Magnus, his white horse as Isak says goodbye to Eskild.

Even feels oddly proud that Eskild isn’t stopping Isak from leaving with Even and certainly isn’t setting Even on fire for stepping foot within he castle which he apparently did to so many others.

Maybe that King’s servant all those years ago was right, maybe Even was destined for this even if it didn’t work out the way the ancient Kings, Queens and monks had foretold.

Isak comes out with a bag slung over his shoulder and from the hard, determined look in his eyes, Even knows not to bring up the redness surrounding them even though he wants to ask Isak if he’s okay more than anything. But if he can’t do that then he’ll settle on trying to make him feel better on their journey.

For half of the ride, Even rambles on about everything and nothing, he talks about the local plays in his village and how he got to direct the last one. He tells Isak about the characters, the costumes but most importantly the storyline and how the actors told it so well and made it come to life.

He feels Isak behind him on the horse, his hands lightly clinging to Even’s waist and part of the reason why Even is talking so much is to distract himself from how close Isak is to him.

He feels Isak nod against his back every so often so he knows Isak is paying some attention, Isak apparently didn’t get a lot of sleep just like Even and is making up for it now by using Even’s back as a pillow.

If it were anyone else, Even would make a joking complaint about it but Even can’t bring himself to do so with Isak. And not because he’s afraid of confronting the prince but because he just doesn’t want to upset Isak and wants him to be as comfortable as possible.

It’s when Even reaches a break in the one-sided conversation when Isak finally speaks up.

“Even?”

“Yes Isak?”

“When are we going to talk about the fact that I’m destined to marry the knight who saves me from the tower?”

Shit.

Even grips tightly onto the reins of Magnus and tries to think how to answer this without hurting Isak and still staying honest.

This was the elephant in the room ever since they met the day before; this was the thing Even had been pushing to the back of his mind and what really kept him up last night.

The most important and final bit to the prophecy was that the princess, or as it turned out the prince, would marry the brave knight who saved her/him and they’d rule the kingdom of Norway together as one.

“I…” Even starts slowly “The prophecy did say we’d get married, yes. But look I never believed in fate much myself. I think fate puts things into our path and it’s our decision whether to accept it or not. We’re the directors of our own life. We make the decisions. And that prophecy, well I don’t mean to insult you or anything but we changed it. It’s not true. The dragon wasn’t slayed. You’re a prince. I’m not a knight, I’m just some kid who someone saw in a crystal ball and was deemed to be your saviour. But you don’t need me to save you.”

“What do you mean?” Isak asks and Evan hates how small and vulnerable Isak sounds, “You did save me.”

Even almost laughs but he doesn’t want to make the situation worse.

“I fulfilled the prophecy yes but…I mean I may be wrong but Eskild wasn’t hurting you was he?”

“Of course not.”

“Well the prophecy was that you needed to be rescued from this ferocious dragon. Eskild, from what you said could be ferocious but to those who weren’t right for you or meant to save you. He never hurt you. You could have probably left anytime you wanted and not have been hurt but you had to wait because of the prophecy.”

For a minute Isak doesn’t say anything and Even is about to take back everything he just said when Isak talks again.

“So what are you saying? The prophecy is false?”

“I’m not sure. Honestly I’m not. I’m not trying to say that all those years you spent in a tower were for nothing and I’m not casting doubt on this ancient prophecy that was so important to your family. I’m just saying that we changed it, you connected with Eskild, you befriended him and made him not want to hurt you, you basically tamed him. I made the decision not to slay him. We make our own decisions with fate and sometimes prophecies get things wrong.”

“Like you and me getting married?”

Even sighs, “All I’m saying is that I don’t want you to marry me if you don’t want to. We just met yesterday! And yes, I’ll be honest I like you and sure maybe we will get married someday but maybe we won’t. It’s our decision Isak. You can take control of your life and your destiny and be free of the prophecy if you so choose.”

Isak is silent and for at least fifteen minutes the only sounds Even can hear are those of Magnus’s hooves treading through the leaves and the birds flying above them.

Finally Even can’t take any more of it and turns to see Isak’s expression only to see him smiling brightly behind him.

“What?” Even asks

“You like me?”

Even rolls his eyes but feels a blush creeping up his neck, “That’s all you got out of that speech?”

Isak nods ever so slightly and his grin only widens.

Even turns his eyes back to the front so he can watch where he’s going and smiles himself a little.

“Yeah” he admits, “But I’ve only known you a day so that could change”

Isak snorts and Even’s glad that he didn’t take what he said seriously.

“I like you too” Isak whispers against the back of Even’s neck and it takes everything in Even not to shiver because of the action and the words.

“But…” Isak continues and Even holds his breath, waiting for the inevitable refusal because he’s a bit older or because of what he admitted last night or because he’s not royalty or even a knight but it never comes, “Can we take this slow?”

Even slows Magnus’s trotting down to a stop, so he can turn his side around so he can properly look at Isak who is staring at him with those wide vulnerable eyes again.

Even smiles and takes one of Isak’s hands in his, keeping the other on the reins.

“Of course we can” Even tells him honestly.

Isak smiles that small smile that he wore when they first met the day before and it causes stupid butterflies to erupt in Even’s stomach but as much as he wants to kiss that smile off Isak’s face, he doesn’t.

“Well, good.” Isak says, “You can start moving again now, come on, I’m starving and I can’t wait to try these cheese cardamom bread things.”

Even laughs and removes his hand from Isak’s, placing it back on the reins of Magnus and they set off again.

So maybe the prophecy didn’t work out the way either of them expected it to but in Even’s opinion it turned out pretty perfect.

As Isak wrapped his arms around Even’s stomach, Even smiled to himself and thought to himself,

Fuck fate.


End file.
